Nov 17, 2012

The Great Indian Schools

With a country where about 35% of the people are under 20 (Source: Census of India), the educational institutions are of utmost importance. In such a situation, CBSE, the largest education board of the country, has failed to make sure that quality education is being provided to the children- the future workforce of this nation!

I am writing this in the wake of a sansani khez khulasa by NDTV on a textbook! A Class 6 textbook says meat-eaters cheat, lie and commit sex crimes. This book titled New Healthway: Health, Hygiene, Physiology, Safety, Sex Education, Games and Exercises is published by reputed publishers S. Chand and authored by David S Poddar, apparently a former teacher, principal and education director.

The book says on non vegetarians,

They easily cheat, tell lies, they forget promises, they are dishonest
and tell bad words, steal, fight and turn to violence and commit sex
crimes.

The book also says that "it is the waste products which largely produce the flavour of meat". It also makes certain baseless conclusions. It praises the Japanese by saying- "They are vegetarians and live longer than most other peoples. The
generous use of green leafy vegetables, soya beans and grams has helped
the people to maintain vigour, strength and endurance throughout the
centuries." However, it fails to mention that sea food is an important part of the Japanese diet. It goes on about the marriage of girls stating that the age group in which they should be married is 18-25 because "To get married without a bad name is a dream of every young girl."

After the report by NDTV, every concerned body came up with excuses. "From next session, I am not going to have this text book- that we have decided," says Manoj Madan, Principal, Dev Samaj Modern School, which has the book as a part of the curriculum- totally ignoring to investigate how this book came into the school for the first time. S Chand representative camp up with this excuse- "We will discontinue this book and rework new ones to prevent a recurrence. We are also trying to contact the author who may have died because he was very old." "We only recommend books for Class IX onwards. Books are chosen by
individual schools. There is no monitoring of content of school books," this is what CBSE had in response.

If every body involved here is innocent, who is to blame? Isn't it the job of a school committee to thoroughly investigate the contents of a book before accepting it as a part of the course? Isn't it the responsibility of the publisher to screen every goddamn word of a book before sending it for printing? What else is the job of editors? Isn't it the CBSE's responsibility to recommend books at every class, not just from IX onwards? And the less I say about the author, the better.

If every one was at fault, why the reluctance to accept it? Why doesn't anyone take the responsibility? Is it so hard to perform your duties? Is greed overpowering you to such an extent? 'To err is human... ' but when you err at each and every step, doesn't it feel that there's something else involved? Does the word corruption occur to anyone?

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